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Today's Opinions

In this week’s column, I’d like to pay tribute to some people who are very important to me – my friends.

Some of them I haven’t seen in years, but they have never left my thoughts and prayers. Some of them I’ve only heard from on occasion; others, I hear from several times a day through a wonderful little thing called Facebook. There are also those that I see several times a year, and talk to on the phone at least once a week.

This week is one, most agree, for the history books. The first African-American was sworn in as president of the United States Tuesday. As momentous as this week is, my thoughts go back decades to how things once were and how far we have come as a nation.

Now that we’ve elected and inaugurated a new president, gotten through the holiday rush and we’ve started a brand new year, it’s time, in my opinion, for a little silliness. I think we need to take a break. We’ve faced hard decisions, made tough choices and returned the ugly sweater from Aunt Agnes...it’s definitely time for some fun.

So I’m breaking out the Southern humor card. I hope you enjoy reading these Southern expressions we’ve probably all used and heard our whole lives...

I don’t know about you, but I did not get invited to the inauguration. They had to swear in the new president without me. Come to think of it, Truman didn’t send for me, nor did Ike or JFK or Lyndon B... There seems to be a trend here.

I reckon these presidents know my limitations. I’m not exactly “inaugurating” erudite. We didn’t waste much time swearing’em in back in my formative years.

If anyone is tired of hearing that people in Gadsden County are so poor, so broke and so needy, it's me. There are poor people here just as they are everywhere in the world. We have no monopoly on that particular state of affairs.

I received a phone call last week regarding our front page. I was not in when the person called, however, I was given the message soon after I returned.

The person’s beef? Our front page didn’t have our new president’s photo on it. I spoke with the person, and I have to say, she was quite pleasant as she made her case. We wished one another “good day” and the conversation ended.

I was sitting on a life guard stand in 1962 when Gray Oliver walked around the corner. She was 6 or 7 and I thought, “What a cute little kid!” Before I could blink another one just like her appeared right behind her! I fell off the stand. They both strolled right up to me. “Are you the life guard?”

“No, I’m an alien left here when the space ship from Nona took off without me. Are y’all twins?”